Words from the founder

We have realized that our humble efforts to serve the holy dham and to have some desire to solve the issues are only by the grace of Srimati Radharani and Sri Krishna. To get the grace of Krishna we should try to get the grace of his devotees. We offer our most humble obeisances to all the devotees and aspiring devotees who are somehow involved in serving the holy dham. We wish to inspire all of their participation in our humble effort called Braj-Vrindavan Act Now!

It is not our intention to offend any individual, and at the same time it is necessary to change our attitude towards the environment. What’s happening outside the doors of our mandir or our house is also connected with the health of our own families. We cannot afford to continue poisoning the environment, therefore, we have to make sure that the least possible amount of toxins enter into our food chain. Burning plastic brings dangerous dioxide into the air, releasing it into the environment and causing major illness when it is breathed. Also when it goes down the agricultural fields and is incorporated in the vegetables, grains and fruits, we surely produce dangerous diseases like cancer, etc.

Plastics of all kind polarize after some time. If they are carelessly discarded into nature and rivers, these poisons will return to us though our food. Pesticides which are sprayed on crops and foolishly called medicines in India will certainly come into our bodies when we eat those crops. In the name of progress we are advancing in the poisoning of people and the environment.

It is therefore required to change each individual attitude, essentially Informing children and the youth, without forgetting our ministers and members of parliament as well, because they still tolerate the existence of huge industries of unnecessary plastic products and no decent system to organize the recycling of these dangerous materials. And what to speak of batteries and other heavy metals released by industries into the rivers?

People love money today and in order to make more money they ignore their health. This is quite foolish because what is the use of money after you have lost your health? Plus all the money you accumulated properly goes to the hospitals and doctors and buying drugs from the pharmaceutical companies, which were the same companies that produced the chemical fertilizers and the pesticides that made people sick to begin with.

Braj-Vrindavan Act Now! is a program which promotes the ancient wisdom of the Vedic village. The many villages in Braj Mandal could be turned into the perfect example, into a model and living museum of how it was and how it should be, to keep us happy and healthy in this world.

Western lifestyle has not brought enlightenment to us. To strive for Western lifestyle is dangerous and the greediness for enjoying what the consumer society is offering is a slow suicide of ourselves and of our ecosystems. It is counterproductive.

The Vedic wisdom supplies us with beauty, sweetness and love. Healthy food and natural medicines. Hand loom and handicrafts to bring financial assistance into the rural areas.

Welcoming guests and sharing with them is the heart of spiritual tourism. In Braj it is called madhukari. This is when a pilgrim is welcomed with a chapatti and some subji, and of course in gratitude it is also a tradition for the visitor to leave some donation according to his capacity. This is part of the traditional loving exchange between the layman and the tirtha Gurus, the guides, the priests, who explain the history of the holy places. And those tirtha Gurus should be known for the love they give and not for their greed for money.

Braj Mandal has the perfect location to educate India and the world on the treasures of these ancient wisdoms. If we lose these treasures they may never be recovered again. Once a species is extinct it will not be seen again. Therefore it is a duty of all of us to preserve what is still there to be preserved. To clean what can be cleansed. To repair or to restore what can be repaired and restored, and to celebrate the living tradition of sanatandharma as much as it comes into our vision.

It is the social responsibility of governments and companies alike to finance and protect these values in Braj Mandal and Vrindavan and hopefully in many other places as well.

Special Vedic schools should be patronized for that purpose, to preserve the village arts and crafts, the Sanskrit language, the Brijvasha language. Most pilgrims come to the holy dham one time in their life or a few visits and some may even stay here for a few years to study, but most people leave the holy dham to go to their respective areas. The holy dham should be protected in such a way that it can inspire the visitors to commit themselves to sanatan dharma and to take the spirit of the holy dham into their respective environments.

Everywhere you see technical schools are popping up, with great investments to make money from the students by indirectly promoting the american dream. But that american dream of ruthless competition for material resources which are not available in the quantities the greedy system of growth requires are producing more misery than progress.

Simple living and high thinking is not simplistic nor primitive. We are not more advanced than our ancestors for having smartphones and computer tablets. It is already a proven fact that the reading and memory retention capacity is going down from these devices, and the constant bombardment of video gaming and gambling is producing in young people increasingly high frustrations and taking them far away from self realization.

Braj Mandal stands for a tradition of enlightenment, love, worship of the infinite, and our dearest Mother Nature, respect for the individuals, justice, kindness with the animals, and cow protection, being that Krishna himself was milking the cows twice a day in Vrindavan. He had his pet dogs, parrots, and they were all treated with love and kindness.

Now is a time to correct our mistakes and to protect what can still be protected. The amazing amount of Vedic scriptures, especially the writings of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada have the capacity of producing a true evolution in the human mind. If we can show a Braj Mandal which is happy and sustainable, many other villages in India and around the world will copy that model. So we ardently request you to get into the spirit of Braj-Vrindavan Act now! and to participate in any way you can.

I personally invite all of you to Act Now! for Braj-Vrindavan

Words from the founder – Hinduism, Indian Culture – Braj Vrindavan Act Now